About 2.15 million people in the U.S. ages 20 and older
suffer from non-refractive visual impairment, which can take
surgery or lasers to repair, said David Friedman, a study
author. Based on today’s findings, more effort is needed to
prevent diabetes and ensure that those who have the disease get
yearly eye exams, he said.

“This is real, meaningful vision loss,” Friedman,
director of the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology and a
professor of public health ophthalmology at the Bloomberg School
of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said
in a Dec. 10 telephone interview. “We need to do everything we
can to try to avoid diabetes altogether and make sure people
diagnosed with diabetes are getting repeat eye care to treat
anything that develops.”

Diabetes, even if treated correctly, can cause cataracts to
develop in the eyes. It can also lead to fluid in the retina
causing vision loss or cause new blood vessels to grow in the
eye damaging the retina, he said.

Eighteen U.S. states had at least a doubling of those
living with diabetes since 1995, according to a report released
Nov. 15 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Driving Restrictions

While those in the study with non-refractive visual
impairment weren’t legally blind, they suffered enough vision
loss that they couldn’t obtain an unrestricted driver’s license
in most states, he said.

They found the rate of non-refractive visual impairment
rose to 1.7 percent in 2005-2008 from 1.4 percent in 1999-2002.
In total, Mexican Americans had the highest increase in the
vision loss over the study, particularly those 60 and older.

The study also showed that people in their 20s and 30s were
experiencing more vision loss. Non-Hispanic whites ages 20 to 39
had a 40 percent increase. For those in that age group who had
had diabetes for 10 or more years the rate more than doubled to
0.7 percent from 0.3 percent, the authors said.

The findings are “alarming” and reflect the repercussions
of high obesity rates among children and adolescents, said David
Musch, one of the authors of an accompanying editorial. Those
who are obese have a higher risk of diabetes.

“If we can make an impact on obesity among children, we
can prevent a lot of this,” said Musch, a professor of
ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Michigan
Kellogg Eye Center in Ann Arbor, in a Dec. 10 telephone
interview.